One Run for Boston organizers Danny Bent and Kate Treleaven near the Santa Monica Pier where the run will start on Sunday. / Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

by Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY

by Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY

Eight months after mental and physical exhaustion made them say they would never do it again, the organizers of the One Run for Boston are going back on their word.

The three United Kingdom natives who put together last year's grassroots relay are gearing up for another 24/7 dash across the United States. Like last year, the relay will benefit the One Fund Boston set up to aid victims of the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing. But this year's 3,000-mile, 3,000-runner event will be bigger, better-funded, will raise more and pass through more populated areas.

Runners taking on individual stages or legs averaging about 10 miles will cross the country in about a month, handing off a baton to one another.

This year's version aims to be bigger in several ways. It starts Sunday in Santa Monica and the first person to carry the baton will be John Odom, who was injured in the bombings as he waited to watch his daughter cross the finish line.

Through months of medical care, Odom has relearned how to walk and will carry the baton to waiting runners. The relay ends in Boston's Copley Place on April 13th, about a week before the Boston Marathon.

The One Run has taken on special symbolism for its organizers - and the nation. It didn't start out that way.

"Last year, we knew exactly one person in the United States and they were in San Francisco," said organizer Danny Bent of Devon County, England, who has emerged as a grassroots celebrity in the U.S. running community.

"This time we had this whole community straightaway and they've all reached out for us to their running clubs and posting things on Facebook to their running pages, and the community is just growing and growing and growing," Bent said.

Bent and friends Kate Treleaven and James Hay came up with the idea of a relay and mapped out a route using an online mapping website, reaching out to U.S. running clubs on the web for help.

The relay last summer started like a hiccup in Venice Beach, with coverage from one or two news outlets, but gathered steam as it headed east and as runners passed through the desert, past the St. Louis Arch, over Ground Zero and ultimately to the Boston Marathon finish line. Bent and Treleaven followed in a donated rental car which often doubled as sleeping quarters.

Runners bonded, sharing personal stories as they ran together or engaged on the relay's Facebook page.

After last summer's finale, the three organizers acknowledged to each other that they were drained. But many of the runners who now meet for races or beers, or even support each other through cancer diagnoses and other challenges, pressed the organizers to return, Treleaven said.

"The response from the runners has been tremendous," said Treleaven, also of Devon County, England. "The same people that signed up last year signed up again. The great thing is, they're bringing their friends too."

Almost every stage or leg can accommodate up to 25 runners, whereas last year, there were many stages that saw only solo runners. Major sponsors such as Toyota and Ragnar Relay have jumped in to help.

James Hay, the tech guru between the three organizers, says the baton this time will use a combination of GPS and satellite technology so it can be traced in remote areas. Last year's baton sometimes vanished from tracking because it was based on satellite technology that relied on phone signals, Hay said.

Also different this year is that One Run is asking participants to raise money. Last year, entry fees were the only source of donations for the victims.

Organizers now have a target fundraising goal of $1 million â?? much higher than last year's total collection of $91,000 â?? and they believe that because the One Run will finish in Boston, about a week before the first marathon following the blasts, that they have an opportunity to make an impact.

"If we are going to make a difference to support the survivors, this is the best moment to try and fund raise for them," said Hay, 23, of Hereford, England. "That's why we're doing it now rather than after the marathon."

As of Thursday, the total was almost $205,000.

For runners, the relay represents a way to help, a way to bond with others or even heal.

Runner Rosa Evora was just a little more than half a mile from the Boston Marathon finish line last year when the blasts went off and authorities stopped her and others from finishing.

When last year's One Run for Boston came around, she remembers laughing with running friends at the beginning of the last leg. Someone put the American flag in her hand and she carried it, feeling the jubilant spirit of the other runners. But as she neared the finish line, she felt emotion wash over her and she crumpled. Photos went viral of running friends helping her to the finish.

"I lost a lot of my friends in the military because of war, so carrying that flag just brought me a lot of emotions and having to realize so many people were hurt when they made that turn to the finish," said Evora, 46, of Rockland, Mass. "You know when you have this knot in your chest it just has to come out? I just had a lot of it."

Evora said she is feeling good going into this year's One Run.

"I'm feeling relieved in a sense," said Evora, who grew up running in her native Cape Verde. "We'll get to get this anxiety out of our system."

As a native of Maine, Brett Jewett feels an affinity for the Boston area. He remembers watching coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings that killed a little boy and two adults and injured almost 300. But the Marine and recreational runner who now lives in Menifee, Calif., regrets that he did not learn about last year's One Run until after it began crossing the country.

This year, he'll run the first stage and is trying to get time off to run the last one in Boston. He said he's glad he can help.

"All those leg injuries â?? being in the military, we dealt with that a lot," said Jewett, 41, a master sergeant based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. "It's going to affect their lives forever."

Karen Jaffee Kalan was a bit skeptical about the One Run last year, which, at the time, had not received a lot of publicity. But after she ran the first leg that headed out from Venice Beach, she says she was happily surprised to see the relay take off via social media and news coverage.

The marketing and communications associate for Students Run L.A., an organization that trains young people to run the Asics L.A. Marathon, and team leader for the fitness group Moms in Motion, has run the Boston Marathon but does not think one has to be one to feel for the victims.

"I think that's why One Run for Boston is such a special event," said Jaffee Kalan, 37, of Encino, Calif. "Yes, some of the people were there the day the bombs went off, but a lot of them are just every day runners and it's an event that really brings runners of all shapes and sizes together."